Art Hounds Track Us Down!

Thanks to the networking skills of Jim Leedham and Suzie Nakasian, Contratopia was mentioned this morning on Minnesota Public Radio's weekly Art Hounds feature. The radio spot was really about tomorrow night's Northfield Winter Stomp dance but they used (very artfully, I might add) shorts bits of our recordings of "Booth Shot Lincoln" (just in time for the Oscars!) and Erik's tune, "It Ain't the Heat, It's the Humidity" (re-titled for tomorrow night "It Ain't the Cold, It's the Snow").

The Winter Stomp piece is at the start of the feature and, I believe, it will air again this afternoon. Check it out. More importantly, come to the dance tomorrow night. I see over 80 people have already said they will be there on Facebook. (Hopefully the latest Storm of the Century will allow Erik and I to drive up from Decorah in time. If not, rest assured that Patrice and Pat will lay down some rockin' tunes with a mystery guest fiddler or two. And Robin Nelson will be there to direct dance floor traffic and work her magic!)

2013, Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

A new year. I was thinking of letting this blog quietly go dark for 2013 but I found it useful today when I was trying to remember a couple of events from our past. So here's the first post for 2013.

Two weeks ago Pat (and Margie), Patrice (and Al) and Ted (and Lynn) all came down for a January concert/contra in Decorah. It turns out that there was another, very cool world music band giving a show in town the same night but we still managed to have a healthy crowd of dancers (many well below the average contra dancer age) that night and everyone had a great time.

We all had dinner together at the wonderful Oneota Community Food Coop before the show and the next morning we gathered again for breakfast at Decorah's Rubaiyat restaurant (minus Patrice and Al, who drove back to Minnesota after the gig, but plus Karen, Sara and the three hungry daughters).

The visit to Decorah was the first step in preparing for our return to the DC area in early March. Step two happens next Saturday, Feb. 9, when the band, along with Ted as caller, will meet at Tapestry in Minneapolis for what I'm sure will be a great dance. The band will meet again on Friday, Feb. 22 (with Robin Nelson calling) in Northfield for the Winter Stomp. The Friday after that we'll be playing at Glen Echo with Ted.

We hope you can make it to one or more of these dances in the next few weeks. By the final Sunday contra at Glen Echo on March 3 this band should be in pretty good shape. It'll be fun.